Tiki Oasis 2013: Friday A few weeks ago we headed south to San Diego for Tiki Oasis. Tiki Oasis is a tiki themed weekender that happens every year near the end of August. The event starts on Thursday night at Bali Hai restaurant at Shelter Island for the official pre-party. The actual event starts on Friday afternoon which is when we always arrive. The event takes place at The Crowne Plaza hotel. The host hotel is expensive and hard to get into so we always stay at a hotel cross the street, The Kings Inn. It is a super cute hotel with a kidney shaped pool, beautiful landscaping, and two restaurants. The rooms are very clean and the prices are reasonable. They have a free shuttle to and from the host hotel that makes it really easy to go back and forth. We first arrived to the host hotel during "sip and shop" hours. This was my first time experiencing sip and shop. Basically the rum sponsors set up booths in between the other vendors and give out free mixed drinks and shots to everyone. It was fab! We didn't actually get any shopping done but boy oh boy did we get some drinking done. By the time the sun went down we were ready to party. Tiki Oasis is a unique event in that every year they have a different theme. The theme is taken very seriously. They book bands to fit the theme, have themed symposiums, themed decorations, themed merch and themed contests. The theme this year was Hulabilly: part Americana, part Hawaiiana, Hulabilly is an American music style derived from the blending of Rockabilly and Haole Hawaiian music. I am a sucker for themes so I had fun dressing the part. Everyone else did too! I love the hillbilly influence on rockabilly, so this years theme was right up my alley. I don't think they can ever top it in my book. The bands all play outdoors, on a stage placed on the grass near the pool. The hotel wraps around the pool area so people can watch the festivities from their balconies. The first act to kick off the event was a new one, the Hukilau Hot Shots (Los Angeles), who was formed just for the event by members of The Lucky Stars. We only caught maybe one song but they were great! I hope to see them again. Next up were the Polynesian Paradise Dancers (Los Angeles). That was a nice treat! Then we caught the B Stars (San Francisco). They are always great and such nice guys. The Lucky Stars (Los Angeles) were a big hit, as well as the MC El Vez (Seattle). You can never go wrong with The Lucky Stars. We had a rootin' tootin' good time! Tiki Oasis actually fell on my birthday again this year, so I got to celebrate there. Everyone was having a good 'ol time! Mitch Polzack (San Francisco) did a cool solo banjo act. King Kukulele (Hollywood) played some fun songs on his ukulele. The next act up for the night was my favorite, Vic Travino (Texas)! His young Elvis act was a HUGE hit with the ladies. I love young Elvis impersonators and Vic was great. I can't believe I hadn't heard of him before. He has all the dance moves down and payed extra attention to the ladies in the audience. He made such a big impression that every time I saw him around during the weekend I would blush and say to myself "Oh my gosh, it's Elvis!". I mean, no one ever looks as good as the real Elvis, but a girl can dream! Kudos to Otto and Baby Doe for booking him! The headliner for the night is a band very close to my heart, The 18 Wheelers (Van Nuys). I am so glad they got booked because since my hubby is in the band I got a free wrist band. Whoot! They put on a great show and had a big audience. Amber Foxx came up and did a few duets with them, which is always a treat. They even had a go-go dancer on stage. What a fun way to end the night! Just because the bands end does not been the party ends. At this point everyone heads into the hotel for room parties. Most big room parties are sponsored by rum companies or bands. They will either hand out invites during the day or you will hear about them on Facebook. Then everyone just does a room crawl throughout the night. All of the drinks are free, you just leave a tip. My favorite room had bartenders from Trader Vics. They made the best drinks ever. Some rooms only served one type of drink, but this room had a whole menu to choose from. My pick was a kona coffee, which was amazing! The room parties at Tiki Oasis is where it is at. I have never experienced anything like it. Someone compared it to what they wished college was like. When people choose to have a room party they really do it up. All of the furniture is removed from the hotel room, so it no longer looks like a hotel room. No bed, no TV, no couch. There is just a bar remaining and a lot of open space. Then they come in and decorate however they want. Some people go as far as removing light fixtures, adding art and decorative panels to the walls. One room even brought in hay bales. The hotel seems fine with it all too. I cannot image another weekender where this would fly. Then they bring in a band and lots and lots of booze. Then they just invite strangers in. It's great! Once the acts are done on the main stage, Tiki Oasis moves the official party inside for DJs and burlesque. So after a few free drinks at the room party I went to check out the burlesque show. They get a lot of great burlesque acts to preform. The MCs are always really funny too and drag king Mo B. Dick (Hollywood) did not disappoint. She is pictured above with miss Tiki Oasis. I actually missed the Miss Tiki Oasis pageant, but the winner was super nice whenever I saw her throughout the weekend. Congrats to her! I figured that was enough excitement for the night so we headed back to our hotel and hit the hay. Tiki Oasis had another jam packed day in store for us. Stay tuned for my post on Tiki Oasis: Saturday. XOXO Dollie.